Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards. In such known gaming machines which incorporate games of chance, each award or outcome is associated with a contribution which is based on the value of the award or outcome and the probability of that award or outcome being generated. In these gaming devices, an average expected payout is determined based on a summation of the contributions of each of the available awards or outcomes.
In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one penny, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to a maximum number of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be made by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of the primary game. For instance, a slot game may have one or more paylines and the slot game may enable the player to make a wager on each payline in a single play of the primary game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as a slot game, may enable players to make wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary or base game ranging, for example, from 1 credit up to 125 credits (e.g., 5 credits on each of 25 separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can wager one or more credits on each hand and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wagering amounts or levels and at substantially different rates of play.
Secondary or bonus games are also known in gaming machines. The secondary or bonus games usually provide an additional award to the player. Secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Secondary or bonus games are generally activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary or base game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine may trigger the secondary bonus game. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence or triggering of the secondary or bonus game (even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be). In other words, obtaining a bonus event and a bonus award in the bonus event is part of the enjoyment and excitement for players.
Gaming devices involving games of skill are also known. Such games of skill are popular among players because certain players feel a competitive edge while playing. That is, these players enjoy the feeling that a personal strength could lead to them winning one or more awards at the gaming device. However, because these gaming devices incorporate one or more elements of skill as a factor of determining to provide any awards to the player, these gaming devices are often not approved by gaming regulators or not as popular with lesser skilled players who feel severely disadvantaged. Moreover, in these gaming devices, the probability of each award or outcome being generated is based on one or more aspects of player skill (which varies from player to player) and is thus unknown. Accordingly, the average expected payout for such gaming devices often cannot be exactly determined but only determined within a range.
Progressive awards associated with gaming machines are also known. In one form, a progressive award is an award amount which includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machine. For example, 0.1% of each wager placed on the primary game of the gaming machine associated with the progressive award may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund or pool. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming machines and more portions of these players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a triggering event occurs, such as a player obtains a winning symbol or symbol combination associated with the progressive award or the accumulated progressive award increments to a progressive award hit value, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial value and a portion of each subsequent wager on a gaming machine associated with a progressive award is allocated to the next progressive award.
A progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to a single or stand-alone gaming machine. Alternatively, a progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to multiple gaming machines which each contribute a portion of wagers placed at such gaming machine(s) to the progressive award. The multiple gaming machines may be in the same bank of gaming machines, in the same casino or gaming establishment (usually through a local area network (“LAN”)) or in two or more different casinos or gaming establishments (usually through a wide area network (“WAN”)). Such progressive awards are played for by one or more gaming devices in the same gaming establishment sometimes called local area progressives (“LAP”) and such progressive awards played for by a plurality of gaming devices at a plurality of different gaming establishments are sometimes called wide area progressives (“WAP”).
Moreover it is known that a gaming machine or bank of gaming machines may be simultaneously associated with a plurality of progressive awards. In these multi-level progressive (“MLP”) configurations, a plurality of progressive awards are arranged in a hierarchy and can start at different award or value levels, such as $10, $100, $1000 and $10,000. Each progressive award individually increments or increases until a suitable triggering event at one of more of the gaming devices associated with the MLP causes one or more of the progressive awards to be provided to one or more of the players. In these known gaming systems, once a player is selected to be provided one or more of the progressive awards of the MLP, the gaming system either selects one of the progressive awards to be awarded to the player or enables the player to participate in an event to determine which progressive award they will be provided.
One known problem with these MLP type progressive awards is that there is often a lack of player interaction in which the player feels as though their strategic choices affect which progressive award will be provided. For example, although known gaming devices incorporate a selection game to determine which of the plurality of progressive awards of an MLP the player will receive, such determination does not include any skill or strategy on the part of the player, just luck. Accordingly, many of the players who win these MLP type games are chosen based on a specific non-skill based event. It should be appreciated that although these players are excited about winning a progressive award, such players are often left wondering how it happened or why they provided the progressive award they received.
Another problem among players in an MLP configuration is that the lower progressive awards can be higher valued than mid-ranged (or higher-ranged) progressive awards if the mid-ranged (or higher-ranged) progressive award was recently hit and reset to an initial value. For example, if an MLP configuration has progressive awards valued at $10, $20, $50, and $100 at a first point in time and a player is provided the third level progressive award valued at $50 (which subsequently resets to an initial value, such as $20), then the progressive awards at a second, subsequent point in time are $15, $30, $20, and $130. Thus, any player who would subsequently win the third level progressive award would be discouraged by the fact that the at least one lower level progressive award currently has a higher value. Such a configuration further presents the unintended consequences of players often becoming discouraged by winning higher award levels of the MLP. Accordingly, one or more players may not play their best (or may intentionally play poorly) in hopes of winning the higher valued, lower leveled progressive award.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming devices and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players including progressive awards.
There is also a continuing need to provide new and different gaming devices and gaming systems which incorporate one or more elements of skill in determining which of a plurality of progressive awards are provided to players.